Good news everyone, Scarlett Ingrid Johansson can actually act and really did out do herself in the memorable role of Barbara Sugarman! Joseph Gordan-Levitt wrote such an original contemporary screen play - if he doesn't win some type of award for his kick-ass directing skills, everyone in Hollywood is deaf and blind. Exciting, multilateral, having a real heart and soul to it that's lacking in most recent film, it still manages to be extremely edgy, still brooding, still serious, so serious, it'll hold your attention long after the end credits have finished, thus I have to recommend it to any movie lover or intellectual. Really I almost feel like my tweet that DON JON is a mesh of American Psycho and Harold & Maude is actually kind of an insult to reduce it in that type of summation, it's that good. I only state there's an American Psycho element to it because there is a strong focus on the fast food, shallow, superficial culture we're all so enmeshed in. Practically drowning in. All of our normally corporate spoon fed culture that's covered in a fine sparkling sheen of clear wrap, its contents still one molecule away from plastic. Until everything's flavorless soul-food. Not DON JON though, it's a virtual buffet of soul-food. Characters Jon Martello Jr. and Barbara Sugarman really do struggle against numerous plastic media enforced false fantasies about sex and gender. It's a mirror on how we all struggle and what we struggle against. But it all ultimately boils down to emotional porn, everything from the romantic comedies to the money shot. Even physical, sexual pornography has undertones of emotion that pull a viewer into it, we can't discredit lust as an emotion. Young boys or the generally ignorant often forget that pornography is just another form of acting and are responding to it emotionally in actual reality, and we don't even know what the long-term societal effects of this phenomena of easily accessible hardcore pornography are, much less what they are going to be. Porn is fast-food sex. DON JON also highlights on how often males are portrayed as having little to no emotion--which is not true. And what is this hyper-Hollywood advertising imagery doing to the minds and souls of not only females, but of males, how is it affecting ALL of our minds and souls; what is it doing to the famous that are still endeavoring to connect to the rest of us on a very grounded human level? Instead of being portrayed by the paparazzi as these untouchable demigods of wealth--why is it that the truly creative voice is needing to be self produced due to a stifling of originality by the traditional distributors? Why are we reduced to shallow sexual shoppers, reveling in our poverty instead of questioning it? That may not be Mr. Gordan-Levitt's intention behind DON JON but they are questions I still can't help taking away. Some scenes were truly uncomfortable yet so insightful of the He-Man macho culture, like when Tony Danza (who should have gotten more roles, my God can this man act) mocked a mounting gesture towards Barbara behind her back, purposely directing her on where the place the casserole--or whatever it was--just so he could make this motion and have a better view of her ass. Danza plays Jon Sr. so it was really icky that the dad approved of his son's choice in women namely due to how much he wanted to bang her himself. It was such a grimy thing to watch, but maybe that's where Jon Jr. kinda got the idea it was okay to be a serial one-night-stander initially? (I was grouped by someone's uncle once, so that type of shit happens). The other scene that was really uncomfortable was when there was this commercial on TV of this like almost nude woman eating a cheeseburger at this impossibly high beauty standard and you just watch Jon Sr. & Jr. kinda ogle her, while the mother and daughter, sister to Jon Jr., look impossibly miserable and put out. That one moment said more then I could ever write about it. Because that type of shit happens too. DON JON speaks for itself, so check out the trailer below and what writer and director Gordan-Levitt had to say about the movie himself and hopefully you'll watch it, think about it, talk about it, hell, even write about it. I'm also excited to see what Johansson will maybe go on to produce on her own after being involved in a project like this and of course, what JGL's next brainchild will be. Put it in your queue! ...what are you waiting for?!--Do it now!
Oh yeah, and check out this "real" Twitter feedof fictitious Jon Martello Jr., it's hilarious.
...I thought I knew what Revenge Porn was. And maybe dear reader, you might not even have heard of Revenge Porn yet. This woman does an excellent job of breaking it down:
But not until I readthis article based on true accounts, did I become aware that a seemingly disproportionate amount of women and girls had been hacked for intimate photos they had never even planned on sharing willingly with others. As if the notion of Revenge Porn in and of itself weren't despicable enough. But getting hacked, having private information getting blasted over the internet, resulting in the loss of relationships, friendships, jobs, and lives?--that's just an evil notion to "profit" off of. Where there was not even a so-called "revenge" committed just a random series of malicious acts on a stranger having done no wrong doing at all. And where does the data mining stop?--are drunken cleavage shots game?--bikini's? Some of these photos were Photoshop-ed and occasionally Photoshop lies can be very precise:
Hunter Moore, creator of IsAnyoneUp?--the first original Revenge Porn site--appears to have little remorse and feels little responsibility despite being an originator of this idea and enabler of like-minded others to have a platform to share a common interest in being creepy, soulless, infants.
It's erape, it's sexual exploitation. It's a gross violation of social trust. It's setting a terrible example to the younger generations. It's awful that law enforcement does so little! It's truly terrifying how many women don't know the real dangers that can be out there. Charlotte Laws is calling it cyber rape, I've been calling it erape, but before concepts of a supposed digital abstract "rape" can even be hoped to be remotely understood, it's important to understand the word rape in and of itself. The dictionary definition of rape is varied but I'm going to stick with the nonsexual definition of the word actually for this purpose which means to plunder, to spoil, to carry off by force, so rape is really about brutalization, having no reverence for sanctity, to ruin, to take away, to choose your choice for you. Sexual rape means lack of consent at its core. I did not give you consent, I said no, you hit me, you fondled me, you leered at me, you breathed on me, you touched me, whenI said no. Sexual rape is a physical violation, that you can be conscious of or not be conscious of happening but you personally rather it not happen yet it is and against your will. Against your consent. If your body is a temple someone is defiling your temple. They take something from you, they make you feel like a disposable object and then ask how you could have prevented it when it's done to you, when you ask for justice. While your rape kit rots on a shelf. Erape is as just as physically and emotionally violating and devastating as physical sexual rape because it's the fucking Goddamn ultimate invasion of privacy. It's the ultimate mindfuck and it should be criminalized, it should be illegal, it should be handled seriously. But right now, regular ol' rape isn't handled seriously enough, if at all. You know what phrase I wish will die in the next 50 years?--"Boys will be boys." You know how many rapes or sexual assaults and sentencing that phrase has probably glossed over like an effect from Photoshop? Boys will be, what?!--not held accountable for their actions? I remember being a child and watching like a Donahue type show and this woman called in, giving the most heartbreaking account of a gang rape she experienced in her home, while wearing a granny gown and a night-robe, in advanced stages of pregnancy. She was a victim of a home invasion at the hands of some bored teen-aged males and she eventually lost a baby she actually wanted. Each boy got a slap on a wrist and barely a criminal sentence apiece, can't remember how long, but even in my small head I remember thinking, "That's...that's...it?" The women proceeded to inquire of the judge why, why were you so lenient on them, and the judge said to her, "Boys will be boys." Her voice broke over the phone on the television, faceless, she protested that she was safe in her home, not even her ankles showing, not dressed like a whore "deserving to get raped" "just asking for it", that all she had been expecting was a baby... We can't treat erape as just another "boys being boys" situation and we can't let them cry about the infringement on their rights and mince over copyright law. That's not what this is about. It's about a lack of consent and dare I say, knowledge. Like a creepshot is a form of erape. But you'd have to even know what a creepshot was to ascertain if you're the subject of one. Lemme paint an innocent enough picture for you, you feel bloated and you want some ice cream and it's like 2:00AM, so you slap on your yoga pants and drive up to the gas station, the ice cream that you wanted was on a shelf too low or a shelf too high and you were too preoccupied with you task to notice the creeper with a yoga pants fetish hovering about taking highly sexually proactive photos of you, without your knowledge or consent on his smartphone. To later get uploaded, on a forum where other creeps do the same shit, it's like a game to them, and they masturbate to you, and they grade you, critique you. These are not the type of men or boys, you want to date, get married to, and have children with, God forbid, have daughters with. It's not as easy for us ladies to spot the rapist and the pedophile right from the rip, you assholes don't exactly come with "tramp stamps" - if ya know what I mean. What if they get enough of your face during a creepshot and they upload to a Facebook account they manage (try looking up just "yoga pants" on Facebook the next time you log in and see what you find) and through Facebook's new face recognition software the creeper knows your name?! They've found your online profile and maybe an email address, phone number, and IM handle. That's all they need to invade your life if they so desire. Or they are hackers and hack into your phone and steal all those naked selfies you decided to not send your ex after-all... When I think about Amanda Todd...
(Why aren't you busy inventing a new computer programming language instead?! Oh that's right, we got investors in pink dye).
...when I think about RAT operators referring to the females they stalk and erape at will as slaves...
...I wonder if on your hypothetical way to the gas station bloated one day in yoga pants for ice cream the truck your driving behind has this kind of paint job on his tailgate...
...would the driver be a "ratter", a creepshot taker, a revenge porn uploader or just a revenge porn view, just your average normal eraping guy or are those tailgates blank, more low profile, less "hilarious"?
Defend the women in your life. Especially if most dudes would erape them, while raping them, hogtied, and calling them a slut.
This lovely lil' online PSA came out back in 2011 but I only recently saw it today. In it, a epicurean platinum blonde will instruct the male you might love and/or tolerate in your life on how to check themselves for testicular cancer. It's anall around eyeful. My initial reaction when first viewing the extremely graphic "how-to-cup-your-balls" vid was that just as easily as it objectifies the female form, it also seemingly literally emasculates the male. I didn't really feel like elaborating my sentiment to the brash libertarian with the conservative republican leanings who shared this clip with me but, it's a woman holding a pair of disembodied nuts. It's typically the males featured in film that get to brandish about dismembered feminine bits. Talk about getting The Shocker, (amiright, duders?). See for yourself:
Is this femme fatale really necessary however? It's a bit over the top perhaps. Especially when this particular Rage Comic created a bit of a stir:
Especially since it turns out that a dude pissing out a positive e.p.t. isn't just a hilarious dadaism,it means his coin purse is full of cancerous rocks. Seems like it might be a wee bit more effective to relay a PSA in an impacting role reversal in that way instead. Seems like it would create a dichotomy of similarity among the sexes instead of perpetuating the preexisting one of singularity. In an ironic moment, a man would finally potentially know the true terror that can strike in the hearts of some at seeing an encircled pink plus, and that motherhood is no laughing matter.
Meredith Chivers, a sex researcher, recently discovered that women are inherently pansexual whereas men are not. It would explain our clitoris that is solely devoted to sexual pleasure and for no other cause. If we were ever made in the image of a god, would it not be possible that the feature that would best embody the divine be the clit?
Chivers also unearthed that more women than ever before are having same sex experiences.
Which is something I had predicted at a rather young age as happening since women are just as likely to be attracted--if not even more so than a man--to another woman. The flood of t'n'a that we're drowning in is manufacturing lesbians. Women like beauty and most men fall sort of the mark, to be blunt.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to locate the exact link to share here but the other week I had found a blog that's even more radical in thought, the particular entry I had read was written by a man about this image of Tinkerbell's clothing makeover:
He basically was saying that the image of Tinkerbell on the left would create dykes and that the more"traditional" icon on the right of her would ensure that females remain sex objects in order to be exclusively heterosexual...
I will admit that I fell asleep at some point while watching Escape From Tomorrow, but not due to its lack of appeal, it was due to exhaustion, and quite frankly if I sit down for any extended period of time in a dimly lit room, I will most definitely probably fall asleep. Which is partly why I would actually like to see Escape From Tomorrow for a second time. The other part being, it’s actually just a really decent avant-garde and thought provoking film.
When first finding out about writer-director Randy Moore’s debut of an exclusively American fantasy-psychological horror film, I could not help but be all sorts of intrigued, particularly by where Moore chose to film – on location at both Walt Disneyland and Walt Disney World, without getting consent from The Disney Corporation.
The few online reviews I had initially all read or seen were from the male perspective only (and as of yet, it still remains to have been read or seen – any type of review of this movie by a woman). Based on those male reviews I erroneously steeled myself for disappointment, but instead found fascination.
This film, its most horrific aspect is that it blatantly announces the elephant in the room which is—we don’t really know what real reality really is anymore. It’s been altered, mechanized, mass produced, mass consumed, reflected, refracted, manipulated, reversed, discolored, dressed up, covered up, spun, turned inside out, and upside down. The amusement parks of corporations is what your quaint bedroom suburb actually is, your desolate commute and lack of community all the side effects of ill begotten gains of soulless multinational mega-conglomerate “organizations” that leave disorganization in their wake, both literal and figurative. Moore shoves this concept into your face like one would shove a puppy’s face in the fecal Pollock it created on your zebrawood custom floor at $18.00 per sq. ft. It’s dark. The black and white suits the film, it brings with it all the nostalgia of film finery and even alludes to David Lynch’s Eraserhead (which was really about alienation in America). The film was very reminiscent of a David Lynch’s focus on alienation, only it made more sense. It certainly made more sense than Upstream Color, or Lady in the Water, or The Last Mimzy. Those three movies are so bad their plots can be summarized in one sentence apiece: If you like yourself, don’t watch it.
That is not the case with Escape From Tomorrow, a brilliant film about a collapsing and failing patriarch. One that cannot provide for his family, earn the respect of his son, honor his wife, or effectively protect his daughter. It’s as if he’s losing his mind because he’s losing control. Something about the actual filming was raw, it was like a stripping away of layers of reality and you start to realize that “the happiest place on earth” was dingy and dated and honestly did not look like very much fun. It’s not Paris darling, it’s just mouse ears in hell. To watch the darkness churn in the fathers mind when he became obsessed with some “girls” of an unsubscribed age was spellbinding. Always the same girls in every shot, sure, but with the angles and lighting they could have been anywhere from 12 to 22. Darting in and out of scene, the father traipsing about after them, seemingly always welcomed and even encouraged by the girls. The patriarch becomes emboldened in the pool approaching one of the girls and the camera focuses sharply, suddenly, it appears that she’s even far younger than 12, maybe even closer to a tall 9 year old. She looks uncomfortable and frightened, while the elder girl motions for her to vacate his presence. It was a legit reality shift. I too felt uncomfortable and frightened. Were they ever even speaking French or was that part of his…fantasy?
The Disney princesses are all whores for Asian business men, and that’s a wow symbolism for me. What a huge statement right there. You whore the mind of your children, the girls turn pink, turn into prey for a floundering patriarch struggling to keep its stranglehold, while Cambodia and China make a bunch of pink crap you can buy your loin princess so she can feel special, so she can grow up into Princess Bitchface, turn into a “12 year old slut”, get raped by 14, have her body plastered all over some subreddit only to be told that erape doesn't exist, when at 16 she can’t even get a job at McDonald’s—who sells bits of pretty pink plastic to complement the hypnosis—because she’s just too damn sexy but when she turns into a junkie fluffer that needs a handler in California, well, that’s her fault or her parents fault only, right?
We are spellbound, it is a syndrome. Every year that we leave regulations in the hands of others to moderate and monitor common decency, an even lower standard of ethos erodes.
Something about Disney has always been reminiscent of a hologram. Turn it one way you see family values, never ending childhood, love… …but turn it another way and you see sin, money, and profit mongering. You see hypocrisy.
That was the role the wayward father played in Escape From Tomorrow, one of a hypocrite. Which is why I felt so compelled to write a review, too many male critics were dwelling on the role of the mother as a harpy—that is not the impression I received. I saw a woman exasperated by an uncommunicative and unreliable husband. Consistently it’s shown she’s actually raising three children, not merely two. The scene when the wife finally confronts the husband about following the French Girls all day is intense, extremely well-acted.
I went t-shirt shopping for my boyfriend online yesterday for Christmas and I could not believe some the prints I was seeing on roadkilltshirts.com (the prints were so awful I eventually did a search for reviews on the quality of the product prior to purchasing from the site and once reading that they were more so iron-ons of a cheap variety, I went with my original order from thinkgeek.com for him, he’s worth the extra cost of decent quality, both in fabric and graphics) but you should see the images for purchase under the category “hilarious”, but hey, don’t forget about the categories of “funny”, “humorous”, and “offensive”. Here is a small spattering example of some of those t-shirts I had to wade through yesterday and I didn't even click on "offensive":
(Entire caption: "Cool story babe. Now go make me a sandwich).
("Donkey Punch" is when a male is having anal sex with a female and he punches her in the back of the head as he's having an orgasm so her anal cavity will tighten more and enhance the male orgasm further).
(Does this imply *her* beaver is shaved?)
(The site depicted block people engaged in numerous sex acts, usually a female assuming the doggy style position. This one not only makes fun of battered women, it also sexualizes them and implies that the wearer is more interested in giving you head instead of a black eye).
(He's probably 4 inches flaccid, amirite?)
(In your head probably).
What do disgusting t-shirts that people who probably play Beer Pong on the regular have to do with Escape From Tomorrow, you might ask?--well, everything. Allow me to proceed a bit further, tongue in cheek. Yesterday I also saw something on a friend's Facebook page, he's extremely creative, tech savvy, hilarious, and all around talented, he had taken a screen shot of another friend's comment about how he thought grown men who had cats were weird, it progressed to how he'd rather spend time with a cat than his baby momma, but not after he called our mutual friend out on doing what he perceived as being a "bitch move" (exposing his dislike for cats?), another mutual friend inquired of the cat-hater how does one "choose a baby momma?" Cat-hater blatantly stated that he had "only chosen the pussy". At that point, I started putting my two cents in, reminding the cat-hater that babies are a product of dicks that spew and that the pussy had to be receptive, thereby making the "choosing" mutual. I also judged him and asked him how he thinks his child would feel if they knew he was talking about their mother in that way and said that if it's a daughter, I feel really bad for his kid and that if it was a son, I felt bad for everyone else's daughter. Seriously, what a jackass to think it's remotely permissible to just announce on Facebook for anyone, or any gender to read that you "choose the pussy".
In Escape From Tomorrow the father figure chose pussy over family.
All the t-shirts above compartmentalize sex and plainly project that a female's mouth is not for forming words to listen to, it's just another delightful hole to stick your dick in. And that girl prancing about in those awful t-shirts announces to any spectator that she shaves her pussy, is sexually active, is willing to allow men to do depraved fetishistic acts to her body, at her expense for their physical gratification.
How did this happen?
Aren't both genders more then their prospective sex or gender stereotypes?
(Found this by Google Image via search words "Disney Gender Stereotypes").
(That's how this one was found as well).
At a time in history when "The Disappearing Male" is a topic of discussion in certain academic circles. At a time in which intellectual Anita Sarkeesian is fingering the gender inequities in this culture (and I want to showcase her latest 'Ms. Male-Character' here, because it's so good, especially the bit about "Eve" being the original Ms. Male-Character).
You can't help but wonder, why is such a vastly inaccurate portrayal being portrayed? One of male perfection and imperialistic domination, one where women are devolved to the periphery of society useful only as caregivers and sexbots? How meaningless is life really when it's allowed to become such an empty dichotomy of vag and cock? Is it just because THAT many people don't want more because they don't bother to take a pause and think of it? They're happy with pellet pelt sex?
Here's an idea, your average human is probably easier to control and manipulate if they're sexually frustrated and/or distracted.
Escape From Tomorrow outlined a man that was too sexually distracted to successfully give his family priority.
His break in reality is most cinematically profound when one of the French girls approaches him and spits water in his face. This one scene lead to a huge debate between my boyfriend and myself later. It could have been seductive, more likely a warning to fuck off and stop stalking them, and was most definitely how the dad contracted the deadly "cat-flu" that was plaguing the park. I take the "cat-flu" as a metaphor for the internet actually. The corporate stranglehold on us can only be cut through intellectual pursuits and collective communication. What best is the internet known for than cats? In fact, the PBS Idea Channel had an episode asking "Is The Internet Cats?" See for yourself, if curious. As a cat would be.
The nurse in the movie foreshadows the dreaded "cat-flu", saying it has been plaguing the park and killing tourists. All while the father ogles her body and she seems on the verge of crying hysterically any nanosecond.
The son knowingly kills his father at the end, or at the very least, knowingly denies him aide while also preventing him from seeking assistance from anyone else. He's dying at the toilet from cat-flu and the son just shuts the door after the father inquires of him for help. Literally denying the will of his father.
The ending was a reality twist not unlike what David Lynch does with the blonde and brunette in Lost Highway. The father is checking into the hotel again with some idealized family right before a pair of Tinkerbells tell us it's The End. I don't know if it's an urban myth or what but 13 years ago when I was going to various social events, it had been relayed to me that Tinkerbell is an adopted lesbian symbol. I've never tested the symbol out but in my circle of friends at the time, it was a given common knowledge, Google searches on the internet aren't really panning out all that well. Pun totally intended. And if they're really sisters, why not make them twins, Disney?
It seems a befitting ending because it does appear that we're watching a New Mother Nature take over. Weather we like it or not, our tomorrows will not be like our yesterdays.
Awesome! Because Munchausen Syndrome can't really get enough of you either! Click here to be a friend of Munchausen Syndrome on Facebook and please be sure to share if you agree there should be more dialogue and awareness on various gender issues! Munchausen Syndrome doesn't always get the quantity of time preferred to deliver you top-notch quality blogs but always makes time to share "cultural" and gender themed links on Facebook. Are you more into Twitter feeds? Awesome! Than click here to follow Audible Audio/Munchausen Audio's tweets. It's supposed to be a way for Munchausen Syndrome to share audio recordings and other links that might not be hosted on Facebook. For the projected future it will just be recordings of some of the feminist leaning poetry for those of you that enjoy the poetry to enjoy even more so fully, hopefully. So far there's only one via the hosting site SoundClound and it loops at the end but there will be more and they will not loop at the end. On Pinterest all the time?--well, have you seen Munchausen's Feminist Feminism board in all of its wonderment?--What, NO?! Want to?--YES?!--than by all means, click here. Please stay tuned for the two upcoming blog posts: "Escape From Tomorrow vs. Upstream Color", it'll be a more heavily focused film review on "Escape From Tomorrow" but it will be a bit of compare and contrast. Specifically because all the reviews I've read on "Escape From Tomorrow" appear to be written from the male perspective and (in my humble opinion) greatly underestimate and miss the point of this avant-garde film entirely. The other blog post on the agenda was supposed to be written in October, as it will center on all the hypocritical "tricks" that abound in America during this spooky month. For instance, October is not only "Breast Cancer Awareness Month", it's also "Domestic Violence Awareness Month", and also is host to the "Mental Health Awareness Week" - oh, the irony. In the meantime, feel free to read this post by Elizabeth Plank on "Why Breast Cancer Awareness Month Is Actually A Huge Insult To Women". Please keep reading, re-tweeting, sharing, re-pinning, and Munchausen Syndrome vows to keep writing, sharing, and pinning. Till the next blog, peace be with you and don't let anyone disparage your dreams!
